Warning

Warning: This site contains images and graphic descriptions of extreme violence and/or its effects. It's not as bad as it could be, but is meant to be shocking. Readers should be 18+ or a mature 17 or so. There is also some foul language occasionally, and potential for general upsetting of comforting conventional wisdom. Please view with discretion.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Foreign Adventurers

November 16, 2011

There are a few posts I've bee asked to start but don't feel versed enough to write on, norready to research. This is one of them. Considering the incredible commentary input of late, I realize a post- orseveral - of reader-generated content could work here.

Find below, when they appear, some fascinating comments with useful links on foreign fighters and adventurers on the rebel side of the fight. These are often Libya natives, or with Libyan ancestry, but who have lived abroad for long enough they count as foreigners, converging on their homeland in support of a foreign-sponsored civil war. Others, from the Arab world, Europe, and elsewhere, have nothing to do with Libya except wanting to go be a part of history there. Some may have been channeled in by al Qaeda or similar extremist networks. Still others are professional fighters and advisers from placeslike Qatar and France and the U.S., arguably mercenaries, who are helping one side fight in a sense that if any other country's nationals were assisting the Gaddafi regime in the same way, they'd be slapped with all sorts of sanctions for breaking arms embargoes, etc..

Once enough good material is gathered below, I'll probably put the best of it in the body of this post.

91 comments:

  1. More from Arwa Damon in this fuller Dailymotion video - man with specs says upto four bodies per bag, unrecognisable, shows the credulous Arwa a sheaf of identity paperwork from all over Libya.(!) at 2.30 and at 3.00 "in another corner of the lot", "bodies have been dug up .....dirt is crawling with maggots.." - details in link below - (camera cuts away so as not to show said maggots). Nice shot of the 32nd Brigade HQ entrance at 1.50 though. A link shows the video to have been uploaded on August 29.
    Arwa Damon's CNN World article was uploaded on 28 August,naming her informant as Muneer Masoud Own, 33,a manual labourer.
    It is too incredible for words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wonder why they emphasis that MOUNIR AUN is not a relative of BASHIR AUN , with his papers of people all over Libiya with him.

      Delete
  2. Sorry, I have posted the above on the wrong page.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have collected videos of foreign volunteers in a YouTube playslist:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/PetriKrohn?feature=mhee#g/c/47E9E384A855C22D

    The best known case is that of "journalist" Mathew VanDyke captured by Gaddafi. The media was far less interested when he re-emerged as a rebel fighter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCiroOtDNDI

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnkCvZOwRBY

    ReplyDelete
  5. Felix: I could delete that for you, but only if you want. Or if you can (some readers have), feel free. Or not...it was a good conversation starter for a contribution-driven project.

    The first link, last post. That sheik is an oddball. He was living and working inside Sirte, assisting those who refused the extreme demand to come out and surrender when he dies?

    And he's called a hero of the liberation? Sounds like a war criminal to me for not leading the way out into rebel arms, and dying instead in situ.

    Or was he hunting down Gaddafi behind enemy lines? Killed only as rebels and NATO slammed the city from all sides?

    We're definitely missing something in this story.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Petri, excellent, a whole playlist. That sounds too daunting to even open at the moment, but thanks for highlighting the Van Dyke case. I may have heard of it or not, but didn't pay attention. Where did he fly in from?

    (more later, I'm just trying to get it rolling...)

    ReplyDelete
  7. On this video you see Mostafa Abdallah Graf, an "Anti-Kadhafi fighter" from Britain.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEMovUudpSk

    Closer inspection shows that he is the imam of the Didsbury Mosque in Manchester. There is more on him on Facebook:
    http://www.facebook.com/hands.off.libya/posts/167174126701481

    ReplyDelete
  8. This collection is a fine idea. It's the perfect place to honour Mahdi al-Harati, the Libyan rebel commander who was born in Tripolis but worked in Dublin as an Arabic teacher for twenty years.
    The Irish Times proudly reported that he had gone back to Libya in February to support the uprising in Benghazi. From there he went to the Nafusah Mountains where he established the famous Tripoli Brigade which he commanded during the attack on the capital. After the fall of Tripolis Mahdi al-Harati was at the height of his career and second in command of the Tripoli Military Council just after Abdelhakim Belhadj.

    But then he got problems from an unexpected side: On Octobers 6th his house in Dublin was broken into and the housebreakers - lucky Irish traveller thieves - found and took 200.000 € hidden there. As he told the police and the irish Sunday World reported, he had received a huge amount of money from an American intelligence agency to support the uprising. But for any reason he obviously had forgotten a pretty part of the money at home... His accomplices in Libya and his generous foreign sponsors probably weren't very amused to read about these things in the press. A few days after the housebreaking a member of the Tripoli Military Council told the Irish Times that " Mr Harati had tendered his resignation last Friday for “personal reasons”".

    ReplyDelete
  9. A rebel fighter called Hasham, who had spent "almost all his life" in Manchester was most probably a member of al-Haratis "Tripoli Brigade".
    He got some fame within the YouTube community for his interview to Sky after the fall of Tripoli. There (at 0:49) he explained innocent and thoughtless:
    "We didn't have many people who can fight here...most people supported Gaddafi."

    ReplyDelete
  10. Adam - you can leave the comment re Arwa D. I will compare videos. Certainly the guy with specs doesn't appear on the one you have seen, brandishing identity documents.(!)

    More from the Manchester connection here, Peet:
    here,
    here

    Another person of interest here

    ReplyDelete
  11. Check out the video "Tripoli Brigade" trains to take capital and some of the US accents of the masked fighters. The Dublin based commander is seen at 1.10. James Bays reporting for AlJazeera.

    ReplyDelete
  12. http://www.voltairenet.org/5-000-Qatari-troops-helped-to
    ....colonize Libya (Voltaire Net , 7 November 2011.

    In addition, the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera played a key role in the war propaganda campaign, going as far as to fabricate false studio images of the entry of the "rebels" in Tripoli.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/26/qatar-troops-libya-rebels-support
    Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya rebels, Ian Black, Guardian , 26 October 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 7.38 and 8.16 here in blue. Sirt, October. 7.45 in green camouflage. 8.01 with scopes (beards grown?) 8.36, driver at 9.14? (interesting vehicle,strangely devoid of graffiti)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Manchester figures very strongly in UK protest movements e.g. involving BLSC or the ChangeMakers project where in this video a Mr Mark Waters is seen lecturing Libyans on how to affect change. Leaving Manchester to fight in the Libyan revolutionThis Manchester youth, Abdul travelled to Benghazi,given a weapon the first day,went to the front line after (or perhaps before?) the uprising and was taken to Abu Salim prison when captured, apparently. Another group of Mancunians is interviewed here on 25 August fighting in Abu Salim district by Alex Thomson of UK Channel 4 news at about 2.00 onwards at Mitiga Air Base.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Who are these two guys in Tripoli on August 22th, seen at 0:48 in this AP video?
    Tripoli 22 8 11 Ų·Ų±Ų§ŲØŁ„Ų³
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqraEzjfCWI
    Uploaded by freeeeelibyan on Aug 23, 2011

    One looks like an European from the Balkans, the other is Black African, but not the skinny "African mercenary" type normally seen on YouTube videos. Both are built like wannabe Rambos and handle their weapons like real professionals.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Felix posts a reference to the death of Abdel Hamid Darrat here. The source also mentions Nader Ben Raween, 24 and another possible Canadian volunteer, Ahmed Hussein. The Canadian Libyan Council is evidently a front for government sponsored destabilization operations.

    A Google image search for Darrat's photo brings up this Facebook page: "I know a martyr". The page posts photographs and short biographies of dead rebels. One interesting name is here: Bashir Ferjani Born in 1972, killed by a sniper in the battle of Bab al-Azizia 23/08/2011, resident in Britain for nearly 15 years.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Al Jazeera is running a series on Libyan exiles who "risked everything to participate in their country's struggle for freedom."
    The Long Road to Tripoli: part two

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks, Petri. No doubt the medical profession well represented. At 1.49 here there is someone of interest.

    Further details here and here. More research to come , to be sure to be sure.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I spent half of yesterday trying to figure out how to spell "Ferjani" in Arabic. And here I had it all along!

    Anyway, here is some more on the "martyr" Bashir Ferjani of the Tripoli Brigade. Note how many of the faces on this video have been blanked out.
    The hero martyr Bashir Ferjany - rebel battalion Tripoli

    ReplyDelete
  20. Here is one more name that came up in the photographs by daniel etter: "Rouven Mansour, a Libyan rebel who was born and grew up in Germany, prays inside a school in Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 30, 2011."

    More: Libyen: Ein St.-Pauli-Fan auf der Jagd nach Gaddafi

    ReplyDelete
  21. @Petri

    There is a strange resemblance between the man with specs in the Bashir Ferjani video and the guy at about 2.18 in this Sky Video of 27 August. Notice another of those nice Lacoste style shirts in the background.
    And does he also appear in this Tripoli Brigade video, uploaded 27 November around 2.17?? (the Irish commander brushes past at 2.14) Check UK registered ambulance at 3.06 - MV52EDS - Oho -Manchester regstration, prob ex North West Ambulance Service.

    Bashir Ferjani leaves little internet presence for a martyr.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The al Jazeera article (mirror) from August 25th on the 17 bodies at the Mitinga Hospital list two volunteer rebel doctors from the UK:

    Youssef Hodiry, an orthopedic surgeon from the United Kingdom and had recently arrived from Misrata, said...

    According to Mohammed Rashed, a general surgeon from the United Kingdom who had arrived in Tripoli from Misrata just days ago...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Petri I can find no such doctor in the UK but probably the same guy as Hatem Al Hodairy as seen in this AlJ video Hatim (or Hatem) Al Hodairy, a microbiologist, has volunteered to drive ambulances for the rebels in east Libya. 30 March 2011. Article here in Arab Times, 5 April.
      He was first reported by Andrew England of the Financial Times on 21 March 2011 : Hodiry "had sped up the highway from Benghazi in the morning after hearing brumours that Ajdabiya had fallen " (unfounded). HH also leaves no other UK internet trace.

      Delete
  23. @Petri - thanks. Needs adding to the Zeiton page. Rashed is alleged to have 25 years experience in the UK. These people are witnesses to victims of war crimes.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Chap at 1.15 in this Al Arabiya video with North American accent. The report mentions finding a cache of landmines in a shed on a grape farm, in Yefren but also described as "near a military compound of Gaddafi's son, Khamis..just last week around 50 burnt bodies were discovered nearby"

    ReplyDelete
  25. CBS The Early Show 26 September 2011:

    Living with Libyan rebels: U.S. student's story


    A student at UCLA had a summer vacation he'll never forget.

    Chris Jeon traveled thousands of miles to live with the rebels battling Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.....Jeon, a math major who's from Mission Viejo, Calif., was side-by-side with the rebels during the liberation of the town of Nofaliya......"I think I made the decision to go, to buy the ticket, four days prior.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The photographer and reporter here,Daily Mirror, 30 August 2011,
    Three UK doctors who went out ot Libya on mercy mission
    , both went to the Khamis compound to report for the paper.
    Interesting reports about three UK doctors, Khaled Sherlala, 49,consultant radiologist at Coventry Hosptal,
    Jamal Harisha, 51, a consultant surgeon at Northampton General Hospital and
    Khaled Aba-Oub, a consultant at St Helier Hospital in Sutton, Surrey who travelled to Tripoli for their summer holidays.

    Mr Harisha added: “Until recently any freedom fighter that arrived at the hospital would be taken away and executed by Gaddafi’s soldiers.

    “They were terrified about going to hospital so instead were treated by sympathetic doctors on the front line. Now thankfully Gaddafi has gone, and they are able to use the hospitals.”
    .

    ReplyDelete
  27. And another adventurer, American Brain Sugeon Rida Mazagri from Charlestown, W.Va, who was already in Ajdabiya by March and who was apparently captured and transferred to Abu Salim prison. Daily Mirror report here,Libya: Colonel Gaddafi's henchman threatened to rape American brain surgeon (spicy headline). Article by Martin Fricker, at the time of the Khamis shed incident, upon which he also reported.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Try finding the related msn video on on this link
    In Sacramento California, 18 year old Anas Tresh watches news reports from Libya with great interest.Anas fought with the rebels until he escaped from Libya in May. Anas is a Libyan American who is proud to be American and now he says he's finally proud to be Libyan too

    Escaped?

    ReplyDelete
  29. some other news from Manchester :

    we came from all over to set the people free
    http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-in-sirte-or-sabha-say-rebels

    http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2011/02/libya-manchester-connection.html
    Thursday, February 24, 2011/Libya: The Manchester Connection?

    http://liveword.ca/libya/2011/03/13/1971/
    Islamic Relief: Libya crisis charity dinner in Manchester

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=uyTb_OvHt6s
    LIBYAN REBELS IN MANCHESTER


    some other English been caught before:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6OPwbb_JIs
    British Troops Caught In Libya&Call with British Ambassador /jan 2011

    Some US service members helped in Abu saleem and to area Rixos hotel :

    US SERVICE MEMBERS ON THE GROUND IN LIBIYA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKV-eAeTzTc
    1.10

    http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-in-sirte-or-sabha-say-rebels
    1.35 US service members

    ReplyDelete
  30. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6OPwbb_JIs
    British Troops Caught In Libya&Call with British Ambassador /jan 2011

    ReplyDelete
  31. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvu9XoNYPQ&feature=player_embedded
    Rebels around Bani Walid - Two guys from Manchester fight along with them (Sept 13, 2011)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=uyTb_OvHt6s
    LIBYAN REBELS IN MANCHESTER

    http://liveword.ca/libya/2011/03/13/1971/
    Libya crisis emergency appeal charity dinner to help those in need in Libya. Thanks to Whitestone solicitors who sponsored the dinner. Islamic Relief raised over £65,000 in the night.

    LIBYAN REBELS IN MANCHESTER
    http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/Tripoli/Manchester/

    ReplyDelete
  32. we came from all over to set the people free
    http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-in-sirte-or-sabha-say-rebels

    ReplyDelete
  33. @caustic : your blog is hacked :COMMENTS ARE DELETED ALL THE TIME

    ReplyDelete
  34. Yes, good Manchester accents in the Thomson C4 video 2.10-3.00. Thanks for links, @hurriya.

    ReplyDelete
  35. @Hurriya: One was marked as spam, approved now. If any others are missing, let me know. Anyone else?

    ReplyDelete
  36. In this France24 video,Ł‚ŁˆŲ§ŲŖ Ų®Ų§ŲµŲ© ŲØŲ±ŁŠŲ·Ų§Ł†ŁŠŲ© ŁŁŠ ŲµŁŁˆŁ ŁƒŲŖŁŠŲØŲ© Ų·Ų±Ų§ŲØŁ„Ų³ Ł„ŁŠŲØŁŠŲ§ with arabic subtitles and dubbing,the balding rebel at 2.20 is speaking with a broad Irish accent beneath the overdub. (bit of "road kill" at 4.30 where you see the Irishman poking a dead Gaddafi soldier with a gun and speaks to camera again without dubbing,allowing the accent to shine through. The title is amusingly translated as "British special forces battalion in the ranks of Tripoli, Libya",not Irish.

    ReplyDelete
  37. THIS 1 I POSTED YESTERDAY 3 TIMES :
    maybe stay visible now :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=WZwdQNw_QqM
    1.10 ?
    Libya Tripoli Rixos Dumbass NATO Rebels, CNN BBC AJE Drama buleshit Ų¬Ų±Ų°Ų§Ł† Ų§Ł„Ł†Ų§ŲŖŁˆ

    http://www.channel4.com/news/gaddafi-in-sirte-or-sabha-say-rebels
    1.35 US service members



    US SERVICE MEMBERS ON THE GROUND IN LIBIYA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKV-eAeTzTc
    1.10


    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/12/us-boots-on-ground-in-libya-pentagon-confirms/

    ReplyDelete
  38. I see now the last of 3 postings of yesterday has stay visible.
    So Ive a double posting today,

    I will check every day if it stays on the blog as check case

    ReplyDelete
  39. Sorry, I've been tending to other things.

    Hurriya, I don't know what to say. I can't stop the problem, hackers or not, aside from watching the spam filter. I suggest don't panic -that doesn't help anything, just causes stress.

    Also, if you picked just the best links, added some commentary on it more often, and just post less comments to worry about, it might work better. To be honest, what you've submitted this last week or so is well beyond what I think I for one will ever read. I check some of them, but...

    You're free to post whatever, of course. Just an idea.

    ReplyDelete
  40. @caustic, I don't post the links with the idea someone should read everything.
    I see the blog also as an archive. Just not have yet the knowledge how to make a working link or how to make a link for files I have. Just checked my lists with mercenary links,16 pages , no idea how can transfer this into 1 link.
    I'll stay quiet till that moment,lol

    ReplyDelete
  41. @ Hurriya: Apolgies. I cam across a little preachy. And a bit wrong. Archive is one aspect of all this. It's all valuable, and sometimes you don't know the value 'til someone else sees it and says "hay, that the same..."

    A lot of missed comments, and delayed updates across the board. Get used to it. At the weekend I'll catch up partly...

    ReplyDelete
  42. An adventurer from Wigan, Hasham:
    "I have to come back to my country to defend myself and my family" - but they are in the UK and he returns to the UK!!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Here is an article about a Libyan from Wales that played a part with the Free Generation Movement.

    Also, if any of you aren't aware Matthew VanDyke is now on Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - a Surgeon from Cardiff, who Tweeted as
      Niz - Nizar Mhani
      @Tripoli_Latest Tripoli I live in Tripoli, i come from Tripoli, i love Tripoli, i die for Tripoli. This is the latest news that comes straight from the Capital city.
      eh??? But only until 3 September 2011. Then back to..

      Elsewhere, we read..
      Cardiff surgeon Nizar Mhani ( @Niz_FGM )& his trip to #Libya at the fall of the Gaddafi regime http://t.co/Efe0NY1U via @AddThis


      A recent tweet is
      Teams collect DNA in the ongoing pursuit of the missing in Libya. Our Mafqood.Org Project continues in ernest facebook.com/photo.php?fbid…
      1:05 PM Feb 6th



      More tweets from the Mermaid Dawn attack on Tripoli...
      To media - unable to do interviews tonight or tomorrow on account of operational role. Situation will change in 24-48 hours. #MermaidDawn
      21 Aug
      @ceoDanya well done, you were brilliant. 26 Aug *
      @Hiba_El_G i owe you and your family a HUGE thank you!!!!!
      26 Aug
      (that is El-Gamaty)

      *Danya bint Bashir - "the next president of Libya", born Arizona USA, educated Sharjah UAE.

      Delete
    2. More about Dr Mhani here at Jewish World Review,by Scott Peterson, "How a daring band of anti-Qaddafi activists helped turn the tide in Tripoli"

      Delete
    3. 20 AUG Niz - Horrid smell of smoke and burning hangs over Soug al Jomaa, Aarada and EinZara. Could be from bombing along the coastal road. #MermaidDawn
      http://www.libyauprisingarchive.com/tripoli-niz-free-generation-movement.html

      extract of other tweets same day :
      20 AUG-Zawiyat Dahmani ,Fashloum, Ben Shour,Mansoura,Araada/al-Sabaa

      20 AUG The Mitiga military base on the outskirts of Tripoli was taken by the
      anti-Muammar Gaddafi forces on 20 August,

      Delete
    4. live2Tripoli live2Tripoli
      @Niz_FGM …Even after liberation people still went to train at Salahideen and Mi3tega afterwords going to #Sabha, #BaniWaild and Sirte...
      12 Nov Favorite Undo Retweet Reply


      live2Tripoli live2Tripoli
      @
      @Niz_FGM Well we don't even have to go far. During the revolution, we heard about French English as well as officers from Qatar train #FF...
      12 Nov Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

      Delete
    5. Thanks to @hurriya, Al Jazeera video of Dr Mhani here Anti Gaddafi forces come out in Tripoli 29 September 2011.

      Delete
    6. Mother of two, and FGM member,Mervat Mhani who took part in a women's Arab Spring forum with Lindsey Hilsum is seen in this RT video at 3.15 and getting much publicity in this 21 Feb 2012 video from The Guardian

      Delete
  44. This Karen Laub article,posted from Nalut, 3 August 2011 Libyan fighters from Tripoli hope to free capital name checks quite a few adventurers in the Tripoli Brigade.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://i41.tinypic.com/t707l2.jpg
      kevin ?
      http://i40.tinypic.com/bevhvn.jpg
      boldheaded shooting
      Kevin had a grenade strapped to his flak vest "in case I have to throw it at someone." Rebl fightrs concerned he's not stable. #Libya #USA

      Delete
    2. Husam Al-Najjar bald head. I didn't realise he and Al-Harati are brothers-in-law. The former's sister is married to the latter as noted in that Irish Times article..

      Delete
  45. Undated Photo by Alex Majoli, Tripoli. 2011 : Wessam, 29 years old, and a Texan mercenary, 6 months in the field and already commanding his own unit.

    ReplyDelete
  46. From Zaiyah in mid August:
    “This sniper is really tormenting us,” says Hareth al-Fasi, a 24-year-old surgeon’s son and student from Sutton Coldfield, [UK] who has joined the opposition.

    “The freedom fighters have tried everything to hit him but have seen nothing more than a rifle muzzle.”

    Is the doctor Mohammad Ahmed who reached Bir Muammar, an opposition-held village, perhaps Mohamed A Murabit of Saskatoon, Canada?

    ReplyDelete
  47. And another one from the Sutton Coldfield contingent, health worker Ali Bahron West Midlands Libyan ex-pat joined Tripoli rebels

    ReplyDelete
  48. Scottish adventurers in ragzeb video stream, of @raggzeb, Free Libya Brigade,returning with elbow prolems.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Not quite an adventurer...David Bruser & Steve Russell of the Toronto Star with 16 year old Ismail Al Dweeb
    They stopped Wednesday night, three kilometres outside Tripoli in a school-turned-rebel-guarded compound. [24 August]
    "His uncle Mohammed, a computer programmer, lives in Toronto". "...among the armed men of Zintan Though he barely stands 5 feet tall, the 16-year-old is a commodity in this town on the road to Tripoli, his fluent English making him a go-to for journalists, aid workers and others trying to procure rides and translators for their journey into the capital. He’s also valuable to the locals who want to know about the foreigners he is helping and any information they might have to share."

    ReplyDelete
  50. Ragab Younis Ballali (Ų±Ų¬ŲØ Ų§Ł„ŲØŁ„Ų§Ł„ŁŠ) - appears in quite a few of his videos, Scottish accent, now resident in Birmingham Balsall Heath...
    e.g.
    Edinburgh bouncer joins Libya rebels 29 August, Herald Scotland "It’s my country and I have not been able to live here for 31 years.

    "
    (not gone back yet...)
    I joined the rebels because I had to do something to free my native Libya
    Scottish Daily Record , 5 Sept 2011.
    "But TV pictures of Gaddafi's forces firing on their own people convinced Ballali to do his bit to help topple the regime.

    "
    (er, which photos???)

    Libyan fighter tells of joy at Gaddafi’s death
    Deadline news, 20 Oct 2011.
    "Speaking from a hotel in Tunisia where injured anti-Gaddafi fighters are staying....I think David Cameron has done a brilliant job, though I know a lot of the public in Britain won’t like it. If Britain, France and the US hadn’t got involved there would have been a lot of dead civilians. A lot of innocent people would have been killed." (!!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  51. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4D2vl4xJBk&feature=related
    manchester heroe @ 2.45

    @ felix : About the spectacle Tripoli Brigade man : sky vid 27 aug link doesn't work.
    Did y see him in another envirement?
    http://i40.tinypic.com/we9u.jpg
    http://i43.tinypic.com/2inbt.jpg
    http://i42.tinypic.com/m9w1nm.jpg

    http://i41.tinypic.com/2pow2oh.jpg
    another suspectable person :
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqKCQf_Tvn4&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  52. was the good soldier fighting for the good war already mentioned ?

    http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-08/world/libya.us.trainer_1_libyan-war-moammar-gadhafi-rebel-training-camp?_s=PM:WORLD
    An American soldier journeys to the 'good fight' in Libya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks - more information here, A Low-Key American Trains Libya's Rebels to Fight, Stephen Sotloff, TimeWorld, 7 June 2011.


      Jerry Erwin of Vancouver, Wash., is teaching the recruits how to survive on the battlefield....
      He went to Libya in early May, he says, because he was "impressed with the Libyans' struggle against a dictator."....
      Throughout the eastern city of Benghazi, a dozen such training camps have sprung up since the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi began on Feb. 17...
      The American reservist has the support of those Libyans on the base loyal to Khalifa Hiftar...
      While troops loyal to Hiftar control part of Dhubat al-Saff, the camp commanders answer to rebel chief of staff Abdel Fatah Younis, a bitter rival of Hiftar. And they have sought to marginalize Erwin....
      "We want to train our guys to be ready to go to the front," says Fawzi al-Ubeidi, a 46-year-old former sergeant in the Libyan army who defected to the U.S. with Hiftar, and who left his home in Johnson City, N.Y., to join the rebellion

      Comment from popsiq: Who's paying Jerry and his mercenary pals?
      Indeed.

      Delete
  53. In 2002, Time Magazine reckoned Mazin Ramadan a Seattle software startup CEO was someone to watch. Then, in August 2011, we see him in this obscure video d klay.flv loading crates of money into a plane in Benghazi (no fly zone, of course, so special NATO permission given) for transit to Nafusa. Was it just money? And what about all other areas of Libya - didn't they have problems with money?? As noted in the Epoch Times,2 April 2011 Ramadan is a friend of Ali Tarhouni and is photographed with him and Nancy Pelosi. [Seattle based travel entrepreneur] Zawaideh said Tarhouni left Seattle in early March and flew into Cairo en route to Libya “There were people, a car, and paperwork waiting for him at Cairo to get him across the border and into Benghazi. He has been banned from the country for 30 years and his name is on the border checkpoints everywhere in Libya. This is his first time to go back to Libya since he left 30 years ago.”...According to Zawaideh, Tarhouni and his friends had been actively involved in work to free Libya since the 1970s....Mazin Ramadan, another close friend and long-time colleague of Tarhouni said in a phone interview that the Western countries’ involvement was essential. “If the West didn’t get involved, there would be a horrible disaster for Libya.”

    Ramadan, former CEO of a high-tech company, met Tarhouni in 1997. The two became close friends, working together to promote freedom for Libya.

    “We worked 24/7 as PR Center/Think Tank,” Ramadan said. When the Libyan uprising first happened, he and Tarhouni quickly mobilized, helping arrange meetings, interviews, and phone calls for the Western media with the Libyan opposition leaders.

    “Things happened so quickly and there is news every minute. We didn’t have time to eat and sleep.” Ramadan said he had given up his regular job and was working full time to support Libya’s liberation.

    He was able to talk to Tarhouni every day, via email or Skype, until a week ago. “Phone network and satellite phone is down,” he said, but he is not worried for his friend’s safety. “There are security measures” he added.

    Speaking of his perspective on Libya’s future, Mazin said, “We live in a time where human rights and freedom are held true. Libyan people are fed up with Gadhafi dictatorship. It is 21st century, people don’t want to live in 15th century, they want a better future. Now they stand up and choose their own destiny. When Gadhafi leaves or gets removed, people in Libya won’t let anybody else take freedom away. I am sure Libya will take its natural place and become a free and democratic country soon.”
    Tarhouni's son Adam also helped out with the finances. Another Washington state Libyan also coincidentally (cough) visited his ailing mother in Benghazi in Feb 2011, Hussein Elkhafaifi, an associate professor of Arabic and linguistics at the UW, visited his ailing mother in February.

    He stayed on through the early months of the rebellion as rebel forces took control of Benghazi, and he assisted Western journalists with translation before returning in April.

    Elkhafaifi says at least 20 other Libyans from Western Washington have returned to Libya since the rebellion began.
    story here,Land of his father: Seattleite gets to help dad with rebel cause in Libya, 27 Aug 2011.
    LA Times story about Ramadan financing the rebels here, 14 July 2011: Libya rebels desperately short of funds by David Zucchino.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought Ali Tarhouni was in Egypt already on February 17th, 2011.

      Delete
    2. seems not,from this source. He stated he was going back to Libya due to family. [spoken in Washington state, Feb 26 2011]

      Delete
  54. At 1.10, Ben Knight in this ABC Australia video Tripoli morgues struggle to cope with bodies interviews an English dentist, now a rebel fighter, Mukhtar Nagasa and an unnamed American at 1.47, followed by footage of dead bodies at Mitiga Hospital. In a puff for her new book on Libya, Lindsey Hilsum also mentions Nagasa: "I found Mukhtar Nagasa, the fighter who had broken into Saadi Gaddafi’s house, who had been a dentist in Bath in a previous incarnation, and who had made viewers laugh when he promised me earnestly, on camera, that he was going to return the painting he had taken as a souvenir from the dictator’s son’s house." Bath..... I make a connection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lindsey Hilsum also finds Nagasa , labelled Muktar Nagasa, who is described as a dentist in Bath, UK - at 2.12 in the Channel 4 video here from Sept 24

      Two days earlier, Hilsum finds another English speaker, with strong Dublin Irish accent, "medical student" Salah Al-Ghadi, at 1.48 in this video clip. Transcript here at PBS

      Delete
  55. Margaret Ward and cameraman Nihol McSibna (?)....rushed to Libya for RTE Ireland in August, speding 25-29 August there. In Tripoli she met Irish Libyan Kareem Khbuli from Ballinasloe Co.Galway (tweeted as Karim Kabulli)who had joined the Zawiyah Brigade studying Medicine in Tripoli. Video interview here: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0828/libya.html#video He shows her the site of the demolished mosque in Zawiyah. At 1.56 she interviews Irish Libyan Mahdi Al-Herati (sic) who has to communicate with fellow Irish citizen in Arabic. To be sure. "this is my home town and this is where I am going to be staying in future" says Khbuli (of Zawiyah).

    ReplyDelete
  56. today I saw a familiair person following this blog on twitter :

    Matthew VanDyke


    Freedom fighter + POW in Libyan Civil War. North Africa + Middle East Expert, Filmmaker. Tweeting rumors + inside info from the region.

    USA · http://www.matthewvandyke.com

    ReplyDelete
  57. Al-Jazeera interview with Mahdi Al-Harati at 1.50 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D3fWhLOX5c&t=1m50s dated Sept 2 2011

    ReplyDelete
  58. 9/2 A Libyan living in Aberdeen has called for answers amid claims five relatives were killed in an attack during the hunt for ex-leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-14765933
    http://news.stv.tv/scotland/north/268704-family-of-libyan-living-in-scotland-killed-in-nato-airstrike-meant-for-gaddafi/

    ReplyDelete
  59. on Sept 10, outside Bani Walid, Al-Jazeera caught up with British Revolutionary fighter, with a mop of curly hair, Hesham Salawem which is probably a mis translation.

    ReplyDelete
  60. By Hadeel Al Shalchi

    TRIPOLI, July 6 (Reuters) - Majdah al-Fallah flashes a broad smile and pumps the hands of shoppers in downtown Tripoli as she works potential voters on the campaign trail ahead of Libya's landmark national assembly elections on Saturday.

    A doctor by trade who lived in Ireland for years, Fallah is running for the Justice and Construction Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood which is tipped to do well. But her small team of election helpers often find the going tough.

    http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/libyas-new-women-politicians-seize-chance-in-vote

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://twitter.com/MaryFitzgerldIT/status/216508269785661440/photo/1
      Majda Fallah, ex Dublin resident now election candidate for MB-linked J&C Party, at women-only campaign event ‪#Libya‬ pic.twitter.com/LrYzpq51

      Delete
  61. A Doctor's Duty | LIBYA ,video uploaded KPCC Radio (Southern California) - uploaded May 27. Cardiologist Dr Mahmoud Traina MD and Dr Tarek Tumiya both went out as Adventurers.

    Traina left his pregnant wife to go to Libya. No plans to return (of course) Tumiya spent a month there.
    See ABC report and video of 29 March on his return after a month.
    Tumiya says while in medical school, he stood up for some school mates who were active politically and opposed Gadhafi. He says he spent a year in jail for that. (slightly different story here though,: He recounted his personal experiences growing up there, including being imprisoned for three years for trying to save the life of a fellow student being hanged during his university’s annual “cleansing” to encourage students not to combat the Ghaddafi regime.

    Traina, of UCLA, was interviewed on the amusingly titled Uprising Radio on August 26 2011 as a Libya analyst. He left for Libya on Feb 24 2011 to a fanfare. He told the BBC on March 2 2011 that He is now going to help at a hospital in Benghazi for a few days.
    On March 4, The Heart reported Traina feels now "that most of the acute need has resolved," so he is planning to leave Benghazi tomorrow, flying out of Cairo on Sunday morning in time to make it back to LA for a Libyan fund-raising dinner that evening, to update everyone about the situation there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @ felix :Dr Mahmoud Traina : tear jerking heroes

      http://libyancouncilna.org/media/protest-resources
      http://libyancouncilna.org/media/videos

      http://libyancouncilna.org/?gallery=photography
      http://libyancouncilna.org/news

      Dr. Esam Omeish
      Dr. Yahia Tagouri
      Dr. Idris Traina

      Delete
  62. felix which one of all these jesse james'types without any charism do y recognise?
    http://www.demotix.com/news/1319114/libyan-prime-minister-el-keib-declares-elections-will-go#.T_mllPXwLCI

    ReplyDelete
  63. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=TS-PcUv5Os8
    Libyan American - Benghazi, Libya (3/16/2011)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ik2QBB33A&feature=BFa&list=UUzJSmt3po4nVKP0OZglHVJw
    mohamed bouazizi
    Latest Activity Jun 15, 2011
    Date Joined Feb 28, 2011
    Country France

    ReplyDelete
  64. http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=630775
    Ex-Libyan Libyans, New Libyans, Old Libyans

    Even more important than the above factors of demographics, is the fact that one million Libyans, out of a previous population of some four million (the six million figure appears to always include those other Arabs who are in the country and treated as brothers or guests), meaning that a quarter of the entire population has had to flee, mostly to Tunisia, but also to Egypt, Algeria, Chad, Niger Malta and further afield.

    They have partially been replaced by "new old Libyans", these are the Libyans who during the Al-Fateh Revolution after 1969 and right up until the 90's, left Libya for the west.

    They were stripped of their citizenship by the Jamahiriya, and many of them were declared "Stray Dogs" and the revolutionary committees were encouraged to hunt them down and eliminate them anywhere.

    This community of exiled Libyans primarily in Britain, Canada and USA but also across many other western countries, grew up with a deep hatred of the Libyan Revolutionary Leader, of the Jamahiriya with its horizontal democracy which rendered them as simply equal to any other Libyan, and the socialism which stripped them of their rights to capitalist exploitation-oriented business.

    These "new Libyans" which now include huge numbers of young Libyans who had grown up in the west, and heard of the stories and dreams of their parents and grandparents, and hated Gaddafi as the most evil man on earth, once Libya had been occupied and "safe" for them to return, know nothing about what was before.

    They are arrogant, and treat the original Libyans as second class.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Libya uprising, one year on: Ayat Mneina – video

    In the third of our series, Ayat Mneina, a Canadian-Libyan who was living in London last February, explains her part in the Libyan uprising.

    Along with her friends and family, she co-ordinated a resistance campaign known as the Libyan Youth Movement, tweeting as @ShababLibya.

    Mohammed Ali Leghuil, a Libyan doctor, tells how he relied on her help
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/feb/20/libya-uprising-ayat-mneina-video

    Mohammed Ali Leghuel , the man of the 600 massacre , zawiya
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57PrSWaZno
    http://vimeo.com/37239151

    ReplyDelete
  66. Libyan-Americans rush off to join fight against Gadhafi

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42350203/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/libyan-americans-rush-join-fight-against-gadhafi/#.UDRfnqOfZ0Z

    "He made the decision he had to go inside Libya," Libyan activist Salem alHasi was quoted
    *
    During the year 1984 several spies in the hire of the CIA entered the country for the purpose of carrying out assassinations and stirring up unrest.
    They came in groups on the following dates: Fourth group: Usama Shallouf, Salem Abdul Sallam Al-Hassi

    ReplyDelete
  67. - On 16 April 1986 American pilots who had participated in the air attack on Libya stated that the purpose of the attack had been the assassination of Qadhafi.

    In 1987 troops trained to carry out sabotage operations arrived in Chad. Their training had been specially tailored to American plans for attacking Libya.

    Chad offered these troops operational possibilities. Military camps were built, including the Um Sanina camp. Barracks for military experts were erected; unlimited financial aid was provided.

    Immoral methods of treatment and psychological warfare were used against the Libyan hostages in Chad.

    Some of them were even killed in the presence of other hostages because they refused to join these terrorist troops.

    The murdered hostages included Major Abdul Salman Sahban and Group Captain Abdulsalem Sharf Al-Deen.

    On 7 December 1990 a US C 141-Nr-50280 aircraft stationed in Ramstein (FRG) landed at Njamina airport. The American ambassador to Chad was present. Two hundred Libyan hostages were transported against their will in this aircraft to Nigeria.

    - On 8 December 1990, 450 Libyan hostages were transported in the same way from Njamina airport to Zaire.

    - On 16 December 1991 the London-based Arab newspaper "Al-Hayat" reported that its correspondent had visited a CIA-run training camp in the state of Virginia for the Libyan hostages that the USA had kidnapped from Chad.

    http://mathaba.net/info/terror.htm

    ReplyDelete
  68. Another Libyan-American from the Richmond, Va., area, Khalifa Hifter, was named late last week to lead the rebel army and left for the country two weeks ago, McClatchy Newspapers reported on Saturday.

    Since coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Hifter lived in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C.

    Badr said he was unsure exactly what Hifter did to support himself, and that Hifter primarily focused on helping his large family.

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/03/26/111109/new-rebel-leader-spent-much-of.html

    ReplyDelete
  69. Hifter's arrival benghazi
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bF60y0isXo
    Ų§Ų³ŲŖŁ‚ŲØŲ§Ł„ Ų­ŁŲŖŲ± ŁŁ‰ Ł…ŲÆŁŠŁ†Ų© ŲØŁ†ŲŗŲ§Ų²Ł‰ 18.3.2001

    http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/9804197-killing-of-rebel-commander-clears-way-for-khalifa-hifter-cia-operative-to-lead-rebels-military

    Killing of Rebel Commander clears way for Khalifa Hifter CIA operative to lead rebels military.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Mohammed Youssef Al-Magrief, and his companion Ali Abdullah Al-Darrat.

    In the summer of 1985 the "Washington Post" published on its front page a long article by Bob Woodward and Paul Bandwarfok which reported that the US State Department had taken extraordinary actions in the summer of 1985, including sending for the American ambassador to Egypt and putting him in charge of a covert operation.

    According to the article, an American-Egyptian military action directed from the White House, whose purpose was an Egyptian invasion of Libya and the occupation of one-half of Libya's territory with American assistance, was to be cancelled. This plan had aimed at removing Qadhafi from power.
    *
    Mohammed Yousef @Almagariaf is the #GNC head #Libya

    ReplyDelete

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